


Better Late Than Never

by lodessa



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Coitus Interruptus, F/M, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 01:44:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13089810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodessa/pseuds/lodessa
Summary: Will and Deanna face repeated interruptions despite their best efforts to get some "quality time" in.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Leyenn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leyenn/gifts).



“I brought chocolate co-”

“Forget the chocolate.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Deanna Troi?” Will replies before following her voice into the sleeping alcove of her quarters.

She sees his eyes widen, his expression shifting again as he takes in the sight of her, breathing in sharply at the gauzy translucent gown she’s wearing, tightly laced just under her breasts and then split to flow open the rest of the way down.

“Belay the chocolate, rather,” she grins, enjoying the reaction so visibly written on his face she wouldn’t need to be an empath to read it accurately. “Save it for later.”

They have been trying to have this rendezvous for over a week now, but somehow they keep getting interrupted. She’s so tightly wound at this point that even the lowest setting on her sonic shower is agonizingly tantalizing.

“And dinner?”

Will steps towards her, half out of his uniform jacket already.

“Can also wait,” she wraps her arms around his neck at the same time his hands encircle her waist.

Kissing Will is like coming home, warm and welcome, a relief and joy. She wraps her legs around him as he picks her up, letting herself lose track of where her own feelings of desire end and his begin.

 _Hurry_ Her mind reaches out desperately to his, _I can’t-_

She can’t wait. Her body screams out for postponed promises, despite some intense holodeck substitutions. It’s not the same. Nothing ever is.

Normally they’d have a slow seduction, candlelight and mood music, long low conversations and gentle caresses, but she’s past that point tonight. The idea of being interrupted again drives her to skip the preliminaries.

Will lays her down on the bed, shucking his undershirt as he kneels between her thighs. She pulls him down on top of her, enjoying the firm press against her where his uniform trousers are tented already.

He kisses her throat and she moans, one hand rubbing against the bulge and the other working his pants open. 

He pulls the tiny triangle of material down, exposing her damp curls and running his fingers through them.

She shudders under his touch, arching her body in anticipation.

“Bridge to Commander Riker.”

She groans in frustration at the chirp of his comm badge from where his jacket lies the corner of the room.

“I’m going to ignore it,” Will assures her, reaching one hand down to caress the side of her face as the other finds a familiar rhythm.

He kisses her and she doesn’t have it in her to interrupt that to reply. If it is important, they’ll page him again. Deanna runs her hands up his back, pushing her hips up into his touch. 

“Commander Riker to the bridge. Repeat. Commander Riker please report to the bridge.” 

At the escalation to the shipwide comm, she swallows the tears of disappointment that want to escape, not sure whether they are her own or Will’s.

“Hey…” His voice is soft and comforting, “Whatever it is can wait. It’s not as though we are going to red alert,” he justifies, though they both know in the end it’s just more evidence against them.

Which is, of course, the universe’s cue. As if in direct response, the siren and scarlet lighting start up immediately.

So much for tonight’s plans, even with all the abridgement. 

It’s a mad dash for both of them to dress, but fluid as any well rehearsed synchronization. Neither speaks, but Deanna can feel the way his emotions mirror her own, frustration and disappointment and a little tinge of shame.

“Does it feel to you like something out there is trying to send us a message?” she finally breaks the silence while they are in the turbolift, “Like some greater force doesn’t want us to-”

She doesn’t finish the sentence. She wouldn’t even know how to put it into words if she tried. What can’t she and Will can’t do or be? In this moment, it's something physical, but that has never been all there is to this. She doesn’t think either of them has ever doubted that. Still, it's hard not being able to define something so important.

“Don’t say that, Deanna.” Will shakes his head, looking down into her eyes, “Things have just been a bit hectic around here lately. I mean I haven’t gotten an uninterrupted night’s sleep in week. You wouldn’t suggest that I need to give up trying for that now would you? If anything I’d say feels like we’re both due for some shore leave.”

It’s been awhile, since they were both on leave at the same time. Was it Risa? She struggles to remember. Maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe they do just need some time alone to recenter. 

She takes a deep breath and smiles cautiously. A thought occurs to her.

“My mother actually roped me into going to Betazed next week for the traditional fruit tree blossoming festival. You could join me.”

“Go to Betazed so we can get interrupted by your mother for a week, instead of ship business? That sounds…” _Hellish_.

She can’t help laughing at his response before she sets him straight.

“My mother is actually going to be off planet. That’s why she was so insistent that I go and represent the Fifth House at the capitol.”

The celebration had always been one of her favorites as a child, flowers everywhere and laughter. Spring on Betazed was divine.

“Well then, I suppose Captain Picard could probably manage without me when during those routine surveys we are supposed to be doing after we finish escorting this supply caravan.”

He smiles at her and she wants nothing more than to press Will up against the side of the turbolift, crisis be damned. Patience, she reminds herself. Still, he makes her feel like the embodiment of a chocolate lava cake, its molten gooey core barely contained.

She imagines them under the trees on the property of her family’s capitol estate, a blanket spread out on the soft grass, petals floating down onto them in the warm breeze as they lie entwined. She can almost feel his hands caressing her skin and the coolness of his saliva evaporating on it as his tongue traces its way across.

They lock eyes and she knows he can tell the nature of her thoughts just as clearly as she can feel the same energy radiating off of him. If she weren’t already lightheaded with longing, the secondhand sensation of his emotions would be driving her there anyway.

It is hard to put into words, the way that Will’s emotions seem more vibrant, more real, than anyone else’s. Their effect is stronger on her. She can usually brush off the feelings of others, but him they penetrate at a much lower intensity level.

The turbolift doors open and they both struggle to shift their mindsets as they step onto the bridge.


	2. Chapter 2

Lwaxana Troi somehow takes up more space in a room when she’s multiple systems away than a normal person would when standing right in front of you.

“End musical selection!” Deanna demands again of the house’s central computer, only to have it substitute the pulsing rhythmic backbeat with something similarly obnoxious. 

“Deanna?” Will looks and feels concerned as she fights with the automated system. She knows she is overreacting, but that doesn’t change how she feels. 

“My mother must have thought she was being clever with all this?” Deanna gestures to the dramatic lighting, the selection of ‘recreational’ items (she doesn’t even want to know what half of them are for). “Worse yet it seems like she’s locked the voice command system to prevent us from turning it off.”

“It will be okay.” Will promises, “I’ll find the control panel and rewire it by hand if I have to.”

“Please do see what you can do with the control panel,” she closes her eyes for a moment, trying to ease the pounding of her head at all the light and sound, “It’s in her solar.” 

Deanna takes a deep breath, trying to regain perspective. Yes, the over the top welcome her mother had left for them (which… she hadn’t mentioned bringing anyone so how did Lwaxana even know she’d have company?) had interrupted the mood once again. Will was right though, soon they’d have some peace and quiet and the luxury of time.

For now she sets about gathering up all of the various sex aids and enhancers and stowing them out of sight. Honestly, what did her mother think she was going to accomplish with this kind of display?

She leaves the alcohol out, though. 

Thinking ahead Deanna searches the rest of the house, where sure enough she finds similar displays. Where did her mother even find half of this stuff? 

The lights and sounds die suddenly, leaving her in almost perfect darkness until she staggers over to the window and throws the heavy drapes open.

After a moment of blinking blindly, her eyes adjust and she can’t help smiling, despite her mother and the light and the pornographic materials and the screaming child on the transport that had been kicking the back of her seat the whole way here.

This place is exactly as she remembered it.

“Quite the view,” she hears Will remark from the bedroom door behind her, before crossing to stand behind her.

“It is, isn’t it?” she smiles, leaning back against him as he wraps his arms around her. “I’ve always loved this place.”

“I was talking about you,” he replies and it's a cheesy line but she feels herself warm at it anyway.

“I see you got that awful program shut down,” she smiles, relishing his warmth and nearness.

“Along with everything else, but its a start, right?”

“It sure is,” she agrees, turning around to face his so she can push up on her toes and capture his lips with her own.

The deep v of his shirt allows her to press her hands against his chest directly, feeling his heartbeat against her palm.

“Alone at last,” he murmurs and she sighs happily at the thought, eager to take advantage of the situation.

There’s nothing on the agenda until tonight’s banquet, nothing except finally **this**.

Their kisses become more intense, as she guides him back towards the bed, following after him as he tumbles down onto it. Straddling Will, Deanna moans into his mouth as his hands find their way up under the front of her dress to slide up her stomach to cup her breasts.

The backup generator must kick on in that moment; because suddenly all of the strobing lights and pulsing music flares back to life.

“Ignore it,” Will suggests, doing his best to distract her by teasing her nipples with his thumbs, and she wants to do exactly that.

She closes her eyes, focusing on the physical sensation, grinding her hips into his. 

The front door chime is loud enough to drown out even her mother’s awful selection of music. Still, she ignores it.

Or at least she ignores it the first half a dozen times.

“I don’t think whoever it is is going to give up,” Will finally comments, hands falling from her breasts to her hips in defeat.

“You’re right,” she admits, sitting up regretfully.

“Maybe whoever it is knows how to reprogram the house?” he suggests, half teasing and half fuming.

“That’s quite optimistic,” she shakes her head, but she smiles slightly, leaning down to kiss him one more time before shifting off of him and swinging her legs off the bed and down onto the floor.

‘Whoever it is’ turns out to be some distant relatives Deanna hasn’t seen since she was a girl. She gets the distinct impression that her mother encouraged the visit and at this point she wonders whether her mother really is trying to keep her and Will from being intimate. 

_Of course, that assumes that she knows Will is here._

What other explanation could there be? And yet, the earlier interruptions seem to suggest the exact opposite. For someone so incredibly direct, her mother can be terribly perplexing.

Aperitifs out on the terrace with long lost relatives (sadly they couldn’t get the house to reset either) are nice enough, but Deanna feels defeated. At this rate she and Will really aren’t going to get any satisfaction from each other on this trip.

 _I thought your mother liked me, Imzadi._ Will’s thoughts evidently mirror her own.

 _Maybe a little too much,_ she responds, ignoring her awareness that their guests are perfectly capable of ‘listening’ in. After all, they are clearly ignoring her and Will’s inner state by refusing to leave without her having to make a scene or be outwardly rude.

“Do you not require Itikai, Deanna?” her second cousin (or is it first cousin once removed, she can never remember) Telena asks in open response to her and Will’s internal conversation with apparent surprise, “Auntie Lwaxana led us to believe…”

Suddenly, the previously nonsensical combination of interferences by her mother coalesce into clear agenda. _Not again <_ she sighs inwardly.

Outwardly she swallows her initial reaction and shakes her head, “My mother is apparently getting a little ahead of the rest of us again, Telena. I’m sorry she put you all to this trouble over a mistaken presumption.”

_Itikai are members of a bride’s family, required by Betazoid custom to be present for all wedding ceremonies. I’m guessing my mother asked them to show up since she’s off planet with misinformation about our intentions._

_This is what… the fourth wedding your mother has tried to surprise us with?_ Will seems less horrified than amused. She supposes that’s natural after a certain amount of exposure to her mother.

 _Seventh,_ she corrects, and then in response to the sensation of his skepticism, I didn’t mention the other three since I managed to quash them without getting you involved.

“I see,” her great aunt Prydina titters, “I do say your dear mother will take it very hard.”

“My mother,” Deanna pauses, standing up from the chaise lounge she’d previously been perched on, “Is quite used to disappointment on this front I assure you. Now I’m sure we’ve needlessly taken up enough of all of your time.”

“She knew!” Deanna exclaims the moment the door slams shut behind their unwanted guests. “I have no idea how but she must have somehow. Is that why she lured me down here, Will? Did she anticipate I’d bring you along and she’d be able to spring this trap? Did she somehow think propriety with relatives I only see once every decade and a half would make us play along? Honestly… the presumption-”

Will reaches out and puts his hands on her shoulders.

“Does it matter, really? We’re here now. Your mother’s catspaws are dispersed.”

She knows she’s right but the whole thing still unsettles her. If she were a violent person she would be fantasizing about murdering her mother, probably. 

“I just don’t want her thinking that because I did invite you that she was right and that I need her to sweep in and fix my life for me… or rather that there’s anything wrong with the way things are and then I’m just so on edge it’s like I can’t see straight…”

“Deanna…” Will reassures her soothingly, hands beginning to massage the tension from her shoulders gently, “Why should we care what Lwaxana thinks? Let her believe what she wants. I’m here with you and I’m glad to be.”

One of his hands moves to the back of her neck, practiced fingers easing the tension there from the base up into her hairline. She feels herself melting into his touch. 

“We are due at the gala in an hour and we haven’t even showered yet,” she protests halfheartedly.

“I suppose we could get into the shower,” Will smiles suggestively.

“The sonic might even drown out some of this noise,” she grins back at him, frustration with her mother fading enough for her to reconnect with other tension that has been building for quite some time.

“The house’s” he asks, “or ours?”

“Ideally both.”

She’s not surprised that the shower has been locked at the highest possible frequency, but that’s fine by her at this point. Closing the stall door behind them before either of them gets more than their shoes off, Deanna wastes no time in flipping on the sonic and tugging Will’s shirt up over his head.

It’s easy to sink into his feelings instead of her own, to let the vibration of the shower and Will’s enthusiasm banish the lingering distraction of her frustration and resentment of her mother’s interference.

He captures her hands and pulls her close for a kiss, before breaking away to pull her dress off of her, only to press his body directly against hers immediately after. The high frequency has every inch of her body tingling and the friction their chests rubbing against each other intensifies with it.

The longing and pent up need of the past few weeks comes swimming back up to the surface of her awareness. The very air feels thick with desire, like the steam of an old fashioned hot hydro-shower.

She slips from the grasp of his hands and makes quick work of the lower half of his clothing. He kicks them out of the way, backing her up against the shower wall before slowly lowering himself down in front of her to hook his fingers under her underwear and pull them off of her.

She looks down at him, staring up at her from his position kneeling on the floor, at sees the same unadulterated total focus on his face as she senses coming from him energetically. 

It usually is. For all the ebbs and flows of their relationship, the times where one or the other backs away, the understanding that they are not the right people to balance the needs of a sparship and the needs of their love affair, the conflicting priorities and the other interests: When Will is with her he is always truly here with her.

“I’m glad to be here with you too, you know,” she tells him, reaching her hands out to pull him back up to standing and wrapping her arms around him to hold him close.

 _I know,”_ he thinks to her, as they resume kissing once more.

His hands find her breasts and she moves her hands lower to draw his hips towards hers. The sonic frequency has her skin buzzing but it's nothing compared the sensation of him against her, erection brushing against her clit. 

“Will…” she murmurs, tilting her head to give him better access to the side of her neck as his mouth wanders, running her hand along the length of him as he continues to hold and massage her breasts.

“I’ve missed you, Deanna,” he whispers in her ear, beard tickling just slightly.

“Me too,” she tells him, sensing the intensity behind his words as though it were a physical sensation.

“I pulled back last year; because, I thought it would make it easier for both of us.”

“I understood the reason,” she assures him, rubbing herself against him, “We both agreed-

“It wasn’t easier,” he interjects, removing his hands from her chest to place them on her hips and lifting her up off the floor to a height were their hips align.

“It wasn’t natural,” she agrees, “We weren’t moving forward. We were merely avoiding the issue.”

They’ve had so many conversations on this topic over the years, good honest open conversations but never a resolution.

“This might not be moving forward,” he presses her against the shower wall, “But it is natural. It’s as organic now as it's ever been.”

“I don’t think,” she feels herself shaking as Will shifts his grip to the back of her thighs and she wraps her legs around him. “I don’t think that is ever going to change.”

“I don’t want it to,” he promises.

They lock eyes as he enters her, one fluid motion of practiced familiarity for both of them. 

She’s never doubted this: the connection between them, the intensity of the sensations and their emotion. 

Beyond moaning, Deanna silently clings to Will’s shoulders as pleasure and relief flood through her, anticipation becoming joy. The love they share ignites their bodies as much as the high frequently of the shower and the friction of their bodies against one another.

As she pushes her lower back off the shower wall, it changes the angle, letting him in completely so that they are joined utterly with the next thrust.

She opens herself to him, not just with her body but with her whole being, baring her thoughts and emotions to him. She’s spoken to the minds of others, but only with Will does she feel this depth of emotional connection in both directions.

It ceases to matter what is Will’s pleasure at her touch and the way she squeezes around him and what is hers as the the head of his cock rubs across the right section of her inner wall just so and his chest presses hers. 

This is not going to be leisurely and drawn out.

Already she can feel both of them spiraling past the point of no return without regret. Deanna gives herself to Will and to the moment, her world collapsing down to a narrow circle of immediacy. 

It’s a special kind of a peace that overtakes her as she begins to peak, feeling herself contract around Will, feeling him spill into her, feeling the flood of warmth envelop them both.


	3. Chapter 3

Will pauses, hesitates, his fingers still interlaced with hers as they walk through the family orchard, petals falling from the trees in the moonlight as they meander back from the celebrations in the city center. She feels him gathering his thoughts.

“When I said I didn’t want what’s between us to change,” he begins, “There was more I should have said, more I am realizing.”

“I sense anxiety, Will. What is it that you are nervous to tell me?”

“I don’t want to go back to the way things have been between us,” Will takes a deep breath and it feels like the air is being sucked from her lungs. “I think it’s time for us to move forward… together.”

That is a weighty proposition and they both know it. For so many years they have danced around this very question, drawing each other closer and then stepping back. 

“Why now?” she asks, though she feels in her heart that it is true.

“Maybe it’s having been so distant this last while, maybe it’s getting older or watching so many people we knew move or or die. I’m not sure. I am sure of us, though. I realize now I always have been.”

“So have I,” she admits, “I think that is what has allowed both of us to let our relationship be set adrift over and over, faith in the belief that it would come back.”

“It’s true,” he stops walking and takes both her hands in his now, “I never truly doubted it.”

“Why then,” she asks herself as much as his, “did we hold back all these years?”

“I’ve asked myself too many times to count.”

She knows why in a way. It wasn’t time then. Yes, others had managed the balance of love and duty, but they were not other people. Of course, neither of them was really the same person they had been when they’d met so long before. In so many ways everything had changed beneath the surface.

 _Except how we feel about each other_ , she amends.

“I think you’re right,” she agrees at last, “I think it is time at last.”

 _Imzadi,_ he thinks to her directly, lifting her hands to his lips, _Will you be my wife?_

 _Yes and more,_ she replies, pulling her hands free and cupping his face with them.

The truth is that they have always been more wedded than the average married couple she has known. The Imzadi bond is so strong between them, so deep and wide and all encompassing. It has allowed them to support each other and be happy for one another when it seemed at odds with all self interest. It has allowed them to grow, to comfort and to nurture, to become more themselves.

Over the years,they have grown strong and so has their bond.

Finally, it is time to bloom. 

They continue through the orchard in silent companionship, Deanna tucked under Will’s arm, leaning into his frame. The house is mysteriously silent and dark, only the light of the stars and moon illuminating their faces as Deanna searches for matches to light the old fashioned fireplace in the study.

The Betazoid cherrywood burns with soft peach colored flames, and Deanna beckons for Will to join her on the thick circular rug in front of it.

His fingertips brush against her lips and then they both lean into the kiss, Will’s hands running through her hair and Deanna’s gripping the material of his shirt. 

Will kisses along her collarbone, taking advantage of the off the shoulder neckline of her fastival dress and Deanna sighs happily letting her eyes drift closed for a moment and enjoying the feeling. 

The sensation of such love and tenderness coming from him isn’t new but it is almost intoxicating nonetheless.

Deanna lets herself be guided carefully backwards onto the rug, Will following close behind her, kissing her lips as she slides her hands up under his shirt and maps his chest with them.

He kisses his way down her throat and across the tops of her breasts, tugging her dress down further to expose more of them to his warm lips and playful tongue, as his hands slip up under the skirt to caress her legs.

She pushes herself up a bit on her elbows, moving her hands to the clasps at the back of her dress, loosening it further so Will can easily remove it from her.

He doesn’t need more encouragement and she returns the favor, eagerly removing his shirt and working his pants open. Holding onto his shoulders, Deanna flips their mostly naked bodies over so she winds up on top of him.

Recapturing his lips, Deanna relishes the feeling of him under her, the warmth of the fire on their skin and the texture of the rug. It is so different from the frenzied rush of earlier in the day, just as good but heavy limbed and languid.

His hands skim over her skin, gently caressing and teasing, and she feels him stirring against her thigh.

She sits up, placing both hands on either side of his hips, and lowers herself down between his thighs, kissing the inside of each before moving in further to lick his growing erection and then wrap her mouth around it . Her tongue teases the tip and then runs along the underside and she feels him react, with shaking legs and with an emotional spike of pleasure.

Taking her time, Deanna builds him up slowly, first pushing and then easing off a bit only to renew her efforts. With each spike of enjoyment from him, she feels her own grow.

Finally, Will takes her upper arms in his hands and pulls her upwards, not stopping as her body comes level with his, but instead guiding her hips up to his face.

Deanna redjusts, shifting into a better straddle to allow Will to nuzzle his face closer, running his tongue between her wet folds and then up to circle her clit. He laps slowly at it, also in no hurry to reach a conclusion, and Deanna has to reach behind her back, anchoring her hand on his abdomen as she writhes against his face.

Will reaches up to cup her breasts, stroking the sides and underside of them in time with the movements of his tongue and she feels herself shaking with the tension and pleasure building within her.

“Will…” she breathes, gasping for breath, “Oh...OH. Imzaaadi!”

Will keeps sucking, the pressure pulling her through her release as she shudders and squirms.

It takes a moment for her to feel steady enough to move, crawling down his body to kiss his sticky mouth, beard glistening with her.

She rubs herself against him, taking a few moments to align completely before shifting to take him inside of her. He reaches to press his thumb against her clit as she sinks down onto his cock and they both let out a deep sigh. 

“You are so beautiful, Deanna,” Will tells her, pushing himself up into a sitting position so that he can press his torso against hers and wrapping one arm around her, “In every way.”

“I’m pretty sure i’m a sweaty mess,” she shakes her head before kissing him again, as they rock together, slow deep movements that keep them close together.

 _Glistening_ he mentally banters back, even as they move their hips a little more forcefully.

“Oh, there you lovebirds are…”

Her mother’s voice is like a bucket of cold water coming from the doorway. Both of them immediately scramble to find some sort of covering from her prying eyes.

“Mother!” Deanna exclaims indignantly, “Aren’t you supposed to be **off** planet?”

“Well I was, Little One,” her mother replies condescendingly, strolling in and pouring herself a drink as though she hadn’t just walked in on them in a delicate situation, “but then I got the report that there seemed to be trouble in paradise so I just had to come back and see what I could do to right things.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well you and dear William here, darling. Hello WIlliam dear, looking dashing as ever I see. Anyway, your great aunt was under the impression that you two must be fighting-”

“Mother…” Deanna did her best to channel her composure given the situation, “If you hadn’t noticed, we are a bit occupied at the moment. By which I mean to say: **Get Out**.”

 _You know, I think I know of an abandoned military outpost on a barren asteroid,_ Will suggested silently, _Maybe we could spend the rest of our leave there and actually get some peace and quiet._

 _Or we could maroon my mother there,_ she counters.

“You know that isn’t very kind, Deanna, not after all the trouble I’ve gone to in order to ensure you had a romantic getaway.”

“Mother!”

“Very well,” she huffs, “I don’t see what you are being so sensitive about…”

She leaves though, which is a good thing; because, Deanna isn’t sure what she would have done if her mother hadn’t backed down this time.

“I’m sorry about my mother,” she tells Will when they are finally alone again.

“I know what I’m getting into in terms of a mother in law,” Will chuckles, “After all these years I’ve almost gotten used to it.”

“That makes one of us,” Deanna replies, but she can’t deny the warm feeling between them, welling up again despite her mother’s interruption.

“I mean if she hadn’t found a way to crash our getaway we might have had to send out a search party for her.” he teases, before adding more seriously, “Should we tell her?”

She doesn’t have to specify what. After all these years and attempts to push them along, should they let her mother know they are finally planning to wed?

“No, I want this to be about us, not her. If she finds out it’s going to become all about what she wants.”

“What do you want?” 

She thinks about it for a moment and it is shockingly simple.

“I want our family there, the one we share.”

“The crew from the Enterprise?” 

She can feel his agreement before he says a word more.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to say thank you to my recipient for giving me the extra push to finally write these two. In all likelihood, Riker/Troi was my little girl self's very first ship (though of course I didn't know that then, just that any time that they interacted my heart swelled and any time either of them was suddenly romancing someone else I was a mess of anxiety and nausea). 
> 
> Also thank you to [Helen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helen8462/pseuds/Helen8462) for talking me through my anxiety and worries (it's a lot to write a ship for the first time after 30 years) while writing this fic and betaing it for me.


End file.
